DETERMINING WHAT NERF GUN IS THE MOST ACCURATE. Finn K. Cary Academy ABSTRACT

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1 DETERMINING WHAT NERF GUN IS THE MOST ACCURATE Finn K. Cary Academy ABSTRACT The main purpose of this experiment was to figure out what the most accurate NERF gun is out of three guns. The three NERF guns that were tested are The Jolt, The Maverick, and The Retaliator. It was thought that The Retaliator would be the most accurate gun because it is a sniper and snipers are supposed to be accurate. Also it was thought that The Retaliator would be the best because it has the most firepower and the bullet would stay straight longest. All three of the NERF guns were fired at a target with ten rings. It was measured where they hit on the target for the experiment. Each gun was shot three times at the target and the average was taken of where they hit. The Maverick was the control because it is most commonly bought. The results showed that the Retaliator was the best and The Jolt was the worst. INTRODUCTION The problem that was trying to be solved was what Nerf gun was the most accurate. The three NERF guns that were tested are the Maverick, the Jolt, and the Retaliator. That is what the problem was for the experiment. Some background research was done about the experiment and interesting things were found out. The most common NERF gun is the Maverick which is one of the guns being tested. Whistlers (a type of bullet) shoot the furthest because they have a hole in the top that helps to catch wind. NERF guns shoot by the power of air pressure. When someone pumps the gun, air is put in a compact chamber. Then when the user pulls the trigger the air is released out of the chamber which pushes the bullet forward. Some guns had the user pump multiple times so more force was in the shot.

2 Projectile motion plays a very important part in how far NERF bullets travel. Projectile motion is the curved path of an object being affected by gravity. It is very important that an object that has projectile motion is only being affected by gravity. An example of projectile motion is a water fountain s water. It goes up then down in an arced path. The path followed by a projectile motion is called trajectory. Projectile motion and trajectory are both used in most firing devices. That is what Projectile Motion is. Accuracy and precision are two very similar things but there are some big differences. The difference between accuracy and precision was found out. Accuracy is how close the experiment is to the true value. Precision is different because it means if the experiment was done again would it be done with the same results. Another thing to say about precision is that if this experiment was precise I could do it again and get almost the same results. Also both accuracy and precision are used in the fields of science, statistics, and engineering. Some observations were made about the NERF gun and the bullets. When the NERF gun shoots it makes a popping sound that sounds like it is releasing air. The Jolt is the smallest of the three NERF guns. Also the NERF Retaliator shoots the furthest out of the three. There is a hole in the top and bottom of the NERF bullet. The stock and the fore grip help to aim the Retaliator. The Jolt can shoot far even though it is so small. The Retaliator weighs the most. The Maverick does not employ much power. The Jolt is the only gun that does not have something that is cocked. Instead the Jolt has a pump that is supposed to pull back. The bullets are foam with a small rubber tip. The rubber tip is smaller than the foam so the bullet is aerodynamic. The Retaliator weighs 800 grams, The Jolt weighs 57 grams, and lastly The Maverick weighs 378 grams. Before the experiment was done a hypothesis was made on what the outcome would be. It was said that the NERF Retaliator would be the most accurate gun. One of the reasons for this is because it is a sniper and snipers are supposed to be accurate. The other reason is that the NERF Retaliator has the most power so the shot would stay straight longest. That is what the hypothesis for the experiment was. MATERIALS AND METHOD

3 3 NERF guns A target Trundle Wheel Clear area NERF bullets The NERF guns were all loaded. They were going to be shot at a target with ten rings, the closer you get to the middle the more points you get. Then the first shot was taken at the target with a NERF gun. It was then recorded where the bullet hit. The other two guns were shot at the target after that and the data was recorded. Then a second round of shots was taken at the target. The data was recorded of where the NERF bullets hit. Finally the last round of shots was taken at the target to get the most consistent data possible. All the data was then averaged when the experiment was done. The control of this experiment was The Maverick because it is most commonly bought. The independent variable is the type of NERF gun used. The dependent variable is where the NERF gun hits on the target. Lastly some controlled variables are wind speed, distance from target, and lastly shot height. The second experiment focused on how far each NERF gun shot. All three NERF guns were loaded. They were about to be shot down the hall. After each shot the distance the bullets were measured with a Trundle Wheel which measures in centimeters. The experiment was started shooting the Maverick three times. It was measured where they all hit. The average was taken for the Maverick then the Jolt was shot three times and the average was taken. The same thing was done with the Retaliator that was done with the Jolt and Maverick. The Control for this experiment was the Maverick because it is most commonly bought. The independent variable is the type of NERF gun used. The dependent variable is how far the bullet goes. Some controlled variables are the bullet, the temperature, and the wind. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4 Distance Shot (cm) Accuracy Maverick Jolt Retaliator Type of NERF Gun Figure 1: Accuracy of NERF Guns on Target The minimum of this experiment was the Jolt. Its average was exactly three which was not very good. The maximum of this experiment was This average came from the Retaliator which is a sniper. The Maverick which was the control was in the middle having an average of This means that the Retaliator is the most accurate gun. One thing that was figured out is that the bigger the gun the more accurate it is. This might be because the gun gives out more force which would make the bullet stay straight longer. That is what happened in the experiment Maverick Jolt Retaliator Type of NERF Gun

5 Figure 2: Distance NERF Guns Went in Centimeters The minimum of this experiment was the Jolt. The Jolt on average only shot 1427 centimeters. The maximum of this experiment was The Retaliator. It shot very far going 1657 centimeters on average. The Maverick was in the middle shooting 1453 centimeters on average. That means The Retaliator is the most powerful gun. One thing that was realized during the experiment is that the bigger the gun the more powerful it is. It is that way because the bigger gun has more air to push the bullet forward with. That is what happened in the second experiment. CONCLUSIONS During the experiment many things were found out. First off the bigger the gun the more accurate it is. Secondly the bigger the gun the more firepower it brings. The hypothesis was confirmed because The Retaliator hit the target the most accurately out of the three guns. It was better by a full point. The results were the way they were because the bigger the gun the more force it employs. That means that when the bullet is shooting forward it takes longer for gravity to counteract the speed of the bullet and start to make it fall. So if the gun is aimed at the target it will be more accurate. One way to improve the experiment is to get a bigger target because it was very hard to hit the center of the target and the results would be better if the target was bigger. Another way to improve the experiment is to get more NERF guns so there is more to compare to. One future experiment is to figure out the most accurate gun in a class like snipers, pistols, etc. One last future experiment is to figure out the NERF bullet that shoots the furthest. That is what happened in the experiment. REFRENCES Cite sources in MLA format. List them alphabetically. "Accuracy vs Precision." - Difference and Comparison. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan

6 Holt Science And Technology Forces, Motion, And Energy. USA. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Print. "How Does a NERF Gun Work?" Ehow. GMC, n.d. Web. 22 Jan "Projectile Motion." Wikipedia. N.p., 30 Dec Web. 22 Jan Vork, Lauren.